


Tax Season

by fortunehasgivenup



Series: prompt fills [10]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe, F/M, Mistaken Identity, Prompt Fill
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-16
Updated: 2020-03-16
Packaged: 2021-02-28 21:08:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,464
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23173699
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/fortunehasgivenup/pseuds/fortunehasgivenup
Summary: After Dean meets Beth's boyfriend, Christopher, he tells her that he approves.Turns out, it was not the right Christopher.
Relationships: Beth Boland/Rio
Series: prompt fills [10]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1608919
Comments: 31
Kudos: 241





	Tax Season

**Author's Note:**

> From jnlnyaface on tumblr: This is a weird one that I’ve decided to put out into the universe (mostly because I’m not sure who’s taking prompts right now). I think it would interesting to have a post-divorce AU where, through a series of misunderstandings, Dean thinks Beth is dating some boring white guy (like an accountant or something) and he actually meets a guy who he thinks is her new boyfriend. And he’s tells her he’s cool with the guy she chose to date. Beth is, of course, actually dating Rio (who might be an accountant too) and she’s like really? (Because she thinks he met the right guy) Cut to hilarious Dean freaking out scene once he actually meets the right guy and Beth calling him out for his racist behavior because the only difference between the guy he thought she was dating and the guy she is actually dating is skin color (and a neck tattoo).

Beth laughs, shaking her head at the antics of her children.

“Alright, that’s it,” she calls out, looking around for Rio. He’s running late, which is unusual for him, but with tax season, he’s been busy.

Jane picks up on Beth’s tone and bounds off, abandoning Danny to face her. Beth just brushes his hair flat and scolds him softly, “Leave your sister alone.”

Turning away, she heads back into the kitchen, grabbing empty chip bowls and sweets trays to refill. She has four kids and it still never fails to amaze her how much food kids and their parents go through at birthday parties.

She’s plating more brownies when Dean comes over to her.

He doesn’t say anything at first, just kind of stands there awkwardly, so she waits him out. 

“Uh, I met your boyfriend.”

Beth looks up at him in surprise. She hadn’t seen Rio arrive. “You met R-“ she stops herself from using the nickname, “Christopher?”

Dean nods. “He seems nice.”

It seems like an odd comment coming from Dean. Rio’s said a number of things about her ex-husband, none of them remotely polite or nice. But Rio is nothing if not charming, so it’s very possible that he’d been perfectly polite while interacting with Dean.

“I know you don’t need my approval or anything,” he says, “but I just wanted to tell you that I’m cool with him.”

Beth bites back a comment about how he’s right about not needing approval from him, but instead she just nods.

“I’m gonna head out. I already said bye to the kids and told them I’d see them when I do pick-ups on Wednesday.”

“Thanks, Dean,” Beth says. “Have a safe trip home.”

He leaves by the side door without any fuss and she breathes a sigh of relief, going back to filling up the tray again. She could practically smell the desire for drama between the two of them that some of the other mothers had been projecting all afternoon.

“Rio!” 

She lifts her head at Jane’s cry in time to see Rio step away from Annie and bend to catch Jane in his arms and hoist her up in a modified Dirty Dancing style lift as Jane laughs.

He jokingly drops her down a little, then lowers her carefully the rest of the way down.

“How’s the birthday girl?” he asks.

Beth smiles as she watches Rio and her youngest interact. Marcus must have heard Jane’s greeting, because he comes out from wherever he was tucked away to throw himself at his dad too. 

“You trying to kill your old man?” Rio wraps an arm around Marcus.

Marcus pats Rio’s hand. “You aren’t that old, Dad. You aren’t even forty yet.”

Beth snorts at Marcus’ definition of old. Which she fits. And Rio’s just a couple months away from.

“Ouch,” Rio says. “You gonna come visit me in the nursing home?”

Finished with the tray, Beth carries it to the living room where most of the adults have congregated. The kids are mostly outside with Jane, although some are crowded around the TV, playing something on the Playstation with Kenny.

She sets the tray down and shoots Ruby a grateful look for handling this cluster before heading outside to make sure no one’s caused permanent damage to her garden. 

Jane and Marcus have abandoned Rio, running back into the bounce house with wild shrieks.

“How much sugar they eaten?” Rio sighs when she slips her arm around him and slides her hand into the back pocket of his jeans. 

“More than should be physically possible,” Beth tells him. “Although Marcus did eat a carrot.”

He laughs and bends to kiss the top of her head.

She forgets all about Dean.

———————————————————

Beth and Rio are leaving the restaurant when someone calls out her name. She stops batting away Rio’s wandering hands and glances over her shoulder to see her ex-husband.

She stiffens and Rio immediately tenses, looking in the same direction.

He mutters something that sounds an awful lot like, “Fuck,” as Dean approaches.

They turn to face him and confusion spreads over Dean’s face.

“Hi, Dean,” Beth greets him. She can be polite. “Out for dinner?”

He nods. “Where are the kids?”

“With Christopher’s mother,” Beth replies. Rio’s mom was over the moon at having more kids around and Beth’s kids had quickly warmed to her. It didn’t hurt that she was constantly feeding them.

Dena looks taken aback. “You have your boyfriend’s mother looking after our children while you go out with -“ he glances at Rio. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“I’m her boyfriend,” Rio says through gritted teeth. Beth takes his hand.

“I’ve met her boyfriend,” Dean says, stepping towards them on the sidewalk. “He’s an accountant named Christopher.”

Beth is confused. Dean had said that he met Rio at Jane’s birthday party.

“I am an accountant named Christopher,” Rio retorts. “The fuck are you trying to say?”

Dean is looking back and forth between them. “No, I met Beth’s boyfriend.”

“You implying that my girlfriend is sleeping around?” Rio looks like he’s ready to swing at Dean, but Beth squeezes his hand, drawing his attention back to her for a second. “She’s not you,” Rio finishes.

Dean is shaking his head. “I met Christopher,” he insists. “Blonde, wore a button up.”

Beth suddenly understands what Dean’s talking about. 

“Wrong accountant named Christopher,” she says. Dean frowns. “That’s Nadia’s dad - Jane’s friend from ballet?”

“He said he works at Ramirez, Koch & Pierson,” Dean says, sounding a little less sure of himself.

“Yeah,” Rio answers, “he does. Under me - Christopher Ramirez.”

Dean looks lost. “But you -“ his eyes fall to Rio’s neck.

“What the fuck is that supposed to mean?” Beth snaps, darting forward as she scowls at Dean with enough ferocity to make him step back. 

“Are you sure this is the kind of person you want to be bringing around the kids, Bethie?” Dean says in a slightly lowered voice. Not that Rio can’t hear him.

“Are you serious?” Beth hisses, moving closer to Dean only for Rio’s arm to come around her waist. “Are you serious?” her voice gets louder, a whole lot more high pitched. “The audacity of you saying that!” She laughs. 

Dean keeps backing up.

“What, now that he doesn’t fit your idea of an accountant, you want to bring up things like wanting approval over my relationships? Get a fucking clue, Dean,” she snaps, trying to follow him. “You’re only welcome in my life when it comes to the kids, who all love Rio, by the way. Which you would know, if you spent more than five minutes around them!”

Rio tugs Beth away. “Baby,” he says, “baby, calm down.”

“No!” Beth keeps looking back over her shoulder even after Dean turns a corner without saying anything to her. “I’m not done yet!”

It takes her a second to realize that Rio’s laughing. She whips her head around to glare at him. “What are you laughing about?”

Still holding her against his side, he’s struggling not to laugh, but is clearly failing.

“Rio!” Beth snaps.

“I’m sorry,” he says before giving in and starting to laugh outright. “Fuck, Elizabeth, don’t think I’ve ever seen you move that fast. Not even when Jane fell on the stairs. Thought I was going to have to help cover up a murder.”

She continues to glare at him.

“I was worried you might try and kill him with your bare hands,” Rio goes on, clicking his key fob to unlock the car doors. He stops next to it. “I let go of you, you gonna go running after him?”

“Don’t even, Rio!”

He bends to kiss her forehead, then tilts her head back to kiss her lips. “Get in the car, Elizabeth.”

She does, but she glares at him the whole time. He just keeps smiling at her like she’s done something adorable. He sobers as he reaches for his seatbelt, then stops and leans towards her.

“Don’t think I’ve ever had anybody jump to my defence like that before,” he admits.

Beth softens.

“It was hot,” he goes on. “And we don’t need to pick the kids up for an hour. Think we can get home and I can fuck you before I gotta pick ‘em up?”

She shivers, nods.

“Uh huh,” he agrees. “Thought so.”

He kisses her again, deeper this time, before pulling away and putting on his seatbelt. He pulls out of the parking spot and has turned the car towards the house when Beth puts some pieces of their conversation together.

“Wait,” she says, sitting up, “you’d help me cover up a murder?”

Rio grins, looking at her from the corner of his eyes. “For you?” He looks forward again. “Course.”

**Author's Note:**

> In an attempt to make myself write things that aren't always 10k+, I'm taking prompts on tumblr (or on here if you prefer). They will all be unbeta'd, so all mistakes are mine and I'll be uploading them as a series rather than chapters because seeing that 1/? is stressful. I'm still working on all my other stuff as well, so most of those should be updating soon. As always, if there's something you think should be warned for, please let me know.


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